The present invention relates to systems and methods for facilitating communications between individuals and enterprises in the context of product and service promotions and customer service management, and in particular, to methods and systems for managing fraudulent calls associated with said communications.
Although there has been a significant shift in the past decade towards the purchase of goods and services online, there are still a number of products purchased over the phone. However, many of these over-the-phone purchases are prompted by advertisements and promotions on the Internet. For media buyers, it is difficult to manage and measure the return on their investment for online, offline, and/or mobile advertisements that result in calls. In many cases, revenue is lost when a promotion results in a phone call that cannot be tracked back to the media buyer or web property carrying the advertisement.
Currently, there are organizations that publish content of interest to an audience of web users. Many of these organizations and distribution partners (termed “affiliates” or “publishers”), generate revenue through advertisements displayed in association with their content. Typically, the advertisements on a web page contain only a limited amount of information but include a link to advertiser web sites that provide further details often including a phone address (e.g., a phone number). If a potential customer calls the phone address to make a purchase from the advertiser, instead of making the purchase online, conventionally it may be difficult or impossible to determine which advertisements resulted in that lead. Such sales/lead tracking and Return On Investment (ROI) optimization is particularly challenging when there are multiple advertisements displayed on different online advertising channels while the sales transaction takes place in another medium (e.g., wireline and wireless telephony). In the case where a single advertisement is associated with a designated phone address and a suitable call tracking solution, the advertisement's performance may be easily determined; all calls to the phone address and all sales that resulted from the calls are driven by the aforementioned ad. However, it is rare that an advertising campaign only consists of a single ad and that the single ad is placed in a single advertising channel. A business with a series of online, offline, and/or mobile promotions (e.g., separate media outlets) will not likely be able to determine which advertisements were the most effective if all of the advertisements drive calls to one phone address.
What is needed are voice, fax, and/or video telephony capabilities integrated with marketing campaigns of varying complexity (e.g., simple or sophisticated marketing campaigns) which enable advertisers to determine and/or credit online promotions with offline telephony experiences. In addition, because these telephony experiences in association with campaigns may be subject to fraudulent communications, certain embodiments described herein are provisioned and configured with appropriate fraud countermeasures.
Disclosed herein are systems and methods for facilitating communications between individuals and enterprises in the context of product and service promotions and customer service, and in particular, to methods and systems for detecting and eliminating fraudulent calls associated with said communications.
Further disclosed herein are techniques for marketing automation and telecommunications, and in particular, to methods and systems which can be utilized for tracking sales/leads, optimizing and organizing advertising campaigns where phone calls and optionally phone numbers are used creatively to track and manage ad spending. For example, certain embodiments track phone calls driven by each advertisement and associate meaningful values to each call that identify the attributes of the traffic source.
A given embodiment may include some or all of the features, functionality, systems and methods described herein.
Methods and systems for reducing the impact of undesirable (e.g., fraudulent or spam calls) are disclosed. In an example aspect, one or more calls to a first phone address are received, wherein the first phone address is not currently associated with a communication for a customer prospect. The calling party phone addresses associated with the calls received prior to the association of the first phone address to the first communication are stored. Then the first phone address is associated to the first communication. A first call to the first phone address is received. Prior to answering the first call and at least partly in response to a determination that a calling party phone address of the first call matches one of the previously stored calling party phone address, the first call is identified as a spam or otherwise undesirable call candidate and may be rejected. Optionally, at least partly in response to detecting a modem tone during the first call, the first call is identified as a spam call and the first call is rejected.
An example embodiment provides a method of computer implemented method of call processing, the method comprising: receiving over a network, by a computing system, one or more calls to a first phone address, the first phone address not currently associated with a marketing campaign communication; storing, by the computing system, one or more calling party phone addresses associated with the one or more received calls prior to the association of the first phone address to the marketing campaign communication; associating the first phone address to the marketing campaign communication; subsequent to the association of the phone address to the first marketing campaign communication, receiving, at the computing system, a first call to the first phone address; prior to answering the first call and at least partly in response to a determination, by the computing system, that a calling party phone address of the first call matches a stored calling party phone address included in the one or more calling party phone addresses associated with the one or more received calls prior to the association of the first phone address to the marketing campaign communication, identifying, by the computing system, the first call as a spam call candidate; and, at least partly in response to detecting a modem tone, by the computing system, during the first call, identifying, by the computing system, the first call as a spam call and rejecting, by the computing system, the first call; and, optionally the computer implemented method further comprising at least partly in response to detecting the modem tone, storing an indication that future calls from the calling party phone address of the first call are to be blocked; and, optionally the computer implemented method further comprising receiving a second call to the first phone address associated with the marketing campaign communication; and, at least partly in response to determining that a calling party address of the second call is associated with a stored call block indication, rejecting, by the computing system, the second call; and, optionally the computer implemented method further comprising: at least partly in response to detecting a call termination of the first call, occurring within a specified call period of time, identifying the first call as a spam call candidate; and, optionally the computer implemented method further comprising: at least partly in response to detecting, during a second call to the first phone address associated with the marketing campaign communication, a fax tone, identifying, by the computing system, the second call as a spam call; and, optionally the computer implemented method further comprising: at least partly in response to detecting, during a second call to the first phone address associated with the marketing campaign communication, a Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) tone, by the computing system, wherein the detected DTMF tone is an A, B, C, or D type tone, identifying, by the computing system, the second call as a spam call; and, optionally the computer implemented method further comprising: at least partly in response to receiving a second call during a specified marketing campaign state, identifying, by the computing system, the second call as a candidate spam call; and, optionally the computer implemented method further comprising: at least partly in response to receiving a second call during a specified marketing campaign state, identifying, by the computing system, the second call as a candidate spam call, wherein the marketing campaign state comprises an indicator of a position of a customer prospect in a marketing campaign funnel.
An example embodiment provides a system, comprising: a computing device; a network interface configured to be coupled to a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN); non-transitory media storing instructions readable by the computing device, that when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations, comprising: associating a phone address to a communication wherein the communication is directed to a customer prospect; subsequent to the association of the phone address with the communication, receiving a first call to the first phone address; prior to answering the first call, generating a first score for the first call, wherein the first score is calculated based at least in part on at least a first attribute of the received call; prior to answering the first call, rejecting the first call if the first score satisfies a first condition; if the first score does not satisfy the first condition, answering the first call; subsequent to answering the first call, generating a second score for the first call, wherein the second score is generated based at least in part on a second attribute of the first call; and, identifying the first call as a spam call and rejecting the first call if: the second score satisfies a second condition, or if a third score, generated based at least in part on the first score and the second score, satisfies a third condition; and, optionally wherein the communication comprises a marketing communication associated with a marketing campaign; and, optionally the operations further comprising: at least partly in response to identifying the first call as a spam call, storing an indication that future calls from the calling party phone address of the first call are to be blocked; and, optionally the operations further comprising: receiving a second call to the first phone address associated with the communication; and, at least partly in response to determining that a calling party address of the second call is associated with a stored call block indication, rejecting, by the computing system, the second call; and, optionally wherein the second attribute of the first call comprises a length of the first call; and, optionally wherein the first attribute or the second attribute of the first call comprises detection of a fax tone; and, optionally wherein the first attribute or the second attribute of the first call comprises detection of Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) tone, wherein the detected DTMF tone is a numeric DTMF tone or an A, B, C, or D tone; and, optionally wherein the first attribute or the second attribute of the first call comprises receiving the first call during a specified campaign state; and, optionally wherein the first attribute or the second attribute of the first call comprises receiving the first call during a specified campaign state, wherein a marketing campaign state comprises an indicator of a position of the customer prospect in a marketing campaign funnel.
An example embodiment provides a system, comprising: a computing device; a network interface configured to be coupled to a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN); non-transitory media storing instructions readable by the computing device, that when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations, comprising: receiving one or more calls to a first phone address, the first phone address not currently associated with a communication for a customer prospect; storing one or more calling party phone addresses associated with the one or more received calls prior to the association of the first phone address to the first communication; associating the first phone address to the first communication; subsequent to the association of the phone address to the first communication, receiving a first call to the first phone address, prior to answering the first call and at least partly in response to a determination that a calling party phone address of the first call matches a stored calling party phone address included in the one or more calling party phone addresses associated with the one or more received calls prior to the association of the first phone address to the first communication; identifying the first call as a spam call candidate; and, at least partly in response to detecting a modem tone during the first call, identifying the first call as a spam call and rejecting the first call; and, optionally wherein the communication comprises a marketing communication associated with a marketing campaign; and, optionally the operations further comprising: at least partly in response to identifying the first call as a spam call, storing an indication that future calls from the calling party phone address of the first call are to be blocked; and, optionally the operations further comprising: receiving a second call to the first phone address associated with the communication; and, at least partly in response to determining that a calling party address of the second call is associated with a stored call block indication, rejecting, by the computing system, the second call; and, optionally wherein the second attribute of the first call comprises a length of the first call; and, optionally wherein the first attribute or the second attribute of the first call comprises detection of a fax tone; and, optionally wherein the first attribute or the second attribute of the first call comprises detection of Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) tone, wherein the detected DTMF tone is a numeric DTMF tone or an A, B, C, or D tone; and, optionally wherein the first attribute or the second attribute of the first call comprises receiving the first call during a specified campaign state; and, optionally wherein the first attribute or the second attribute of the first call comprises receiving the first call during a specified campaign state, wherein a marketing campaign state comprises an indicator of a position of the customer prospect in a marketing campaign funnel.